For this first podcast episode of 2018, I’m taking a look back at some of the big lessons that I learned about advertising on Facebook in 2017. I’m also looking ahead at what to expect in this year in terms of Facebook advertising, and online marketing in general, and sharing this with you.

It’s not enough to just be running multiple campaigns on Facebook, you’re going to need to know what you want to accomplish and have a clear strategy around this…

With the frequent changes on the platform, it’s up to the advertiser to check Facebook’s policies on a very regular basis, as well as keeping up on all of the platforms and emerging technology so that you can take a holistic approach to marketing your brand.

A lot of what I talk about today, like building relationships and being aware of your customer journey, can be considered fundamentals of marketing and things I discuss often. However, you’ll see just how important it is going to be to determine how to best have a personalized conversation with your target audience, and to do this as soon as possible.

On the Show Today You’ll Learn:

• Why you’ll need to pay even more attention to things such as relevance score and your positive and negative Facebook reviews
• How you can be using video to market your business – and why you don’t need a big production budget for videos to be effective
• My recent experience testing Instagram Story Ads in a recent launch and what to think about if you’re considering using them as well
• What’s now allowing us to better leverage “big data” and why you’re going to need to really know your numbers to get the most out of it
• Advanced applications that are gaining traction very quickly and will provide advertisers big opportunities in the very near future
• The two social platforms making improvements that will become bigger players in online marketing for 2018

The Accelerator Group Coaching Program

I’m super pumped to introduce and invite you to my brand new exclusive 12-month group coaching program — the “Accelerator” — to help you finally take your business to the next level.

I’ve been getting a ton of requests for more direct business building mentorship and coaching from me, so I’m excited to announce this new program!

I’m living proof that when you surround yourself with bright, driven, like-minded entrepreneurs, you create an opportunity for enormous growth.

And I want the same for you.

The exclusive Accelerator 12-month group coaching program is based on the framework of High-Level Coaching, Community, and Accountability.

Links & Resources Mentioned in this Episode

Click here to sign up for my London Workshop

Click here for Facebook’s Advertising Policies

Click here to learn more about Facebook Watch

Click here to learn more about ManyChat

Click here to learn more Alexa Voice Service

Click here to learn more about Google Home

Got A Question You Want Answered On the Podcast?

Ask your questions or let me know if there is a topic or guest you’d like to hear from in the comments below or click here to visit my contact page and submit your question there for a chance to be featured on one of my upcoming Q&A episodes.

Please support the podcast by giving an honest Rating/Review for the show on iTunes!

Transcript of Today’s Episode

[00:00:06] The show or bring you the best tips tactics and strategies for using paid traffic to grow your business on autopilot. You’ll also hear what’s working and not working right now from the top minds in online marketing so that you can get more leads and sales every day without having to empty your wallet in the process. All right let’s jump into it.

[00:00:28] HEY HEY WHAT IS UP EVERYONE. Welcome back to the art of pay traffic podcasts first episode of 2018. I’m your host Rick Mulready. And this is episode number one hundred and seventy two. Happy New Year everybody. Hope your holidays were awesome. Really appreciate you give for me your time today on the show today. I thought we’d take a look back on some of the big lessons that we’ve learned from advertising on Facebook in 2017 and then also take a look ahead to this year here in 2018 and what to expect on Facebook and also in online marketing in general. Really excited to take you through this solo episode over the next few minutes here before we dive into it. I want to let you know that I’m going to be in London for a few days in late January my wife and I are going to go back to Paris for a few weeks in later this month here in January. And while we’re over there we’re going to go over to London for a few days. And while I’m in London I’m going to do a one day Facebook ads workshop on Friday January 26. This is something I get asked about all the time. People hear about the workshops I do here in San Diego. And people are like when are you going do you want in Europe or you know in London or Paris when you’re over there. And it is on. Game on.

[00:01:40] So at this one day London Facebook ads and business building workshop this is where we’re gonna be talking about cutting edge Facebook ads strategies in online business building strategies. Also we’re going to get the tips and tactics that are working right now to grow and automate your business. I’m going to be limiting this to just 10 people. So you’re going to be surrounded by other like minded entrepreneurs who are also trying to grow their business just like you and I look at these workshops as really as an opportunity for you to implement with my help right there your Facebook ad strategy to grow your business. And again my goal with this is really walking away from a workshop like this with stun with stun of done the right way. So this is an opportunity for me to learn more about your business and discover what you’re doing. Maybe the blind spots that you might have in that business and fix them right there on the spot so we’re really diving into things like Facebook ads strategy proper ad campaigns set up ad copy landing pages retargeting pixels. We’ll talk about team building in a whole lot more so whatever it is that you need help with in your business and marketing and your business. Take it to the next level. That’s what we’re going to be accomplishing there in that one day. Facebook ads in business building workshop there in London. So as I mentioned I’m limiting this to just 10 people and it’s going to be first come first serve. So if you want to grab a spot at this workshop in London again It’s Friday January 26 2018. Go to Rick Mulready dot com forward slash London.

[00:03:17] I’ve got a really cool space reserved that one of the we work coworking spaces in downtown London and really excited to do this first workshop over in London. So all right without further ado let’s start diving into some lessons from advertising on Facebook. In 2017. And the first lesson is having a clear strategy. This is something I saw a lot throughout 2017 in my conversations with people maybe just in general or students of mine. I saw this a lot at my FBA live events here in San Diego and people were just they were they were running Facebook ads which was good. So I love the I love the effort and you know getting into it. But they were using Facebook ads and their business without a clear strategy meaning they might have four or five different campaigns running but they really had no idea there was no clear strategy behind it. They were just sort of running a video here and an ad over here and this one this video over here was for video views and this one this other campaign over here was for engagement and they might have a you know conversions campaign in there. But there was no sort of clear cut strategy of what they were doing. And so that is the first lesson I really want to get across to you we’ve talked about a lot here on the show about having a clear strategy.

[00:04:45] When you were going to do your Facebook ads in the this is the work that we talk about a lot here in the show again this is the work that so many people don’t want to do of mapping out the clear strategy mapping out the strategy of what they want to accomplish with their Facebook ads and also really having a solid understanding of who their target audience is not only who their target audience is but are there subsegments of that target audience that you want to be speaking to specifically and individually in your Facebook ads. OK. So and we talk about having this strategy working from the end goal and working backwards so knowing clearly what your end goal is. So you know might be I want to make this sale OK. Great. What are all the steps that need to happen in the customer journey to get them to that end goal and we’re going be talking about customer journey coming up in what to expect here in 2018. But really this first lesson revolves around making sure that you’ve got a clear strategy. I just saw it too many times this year where people were just throwing money away. And without a clear strategy so if I can implore you to do anything in 2018 when you’re doing your Facebook ads make sure that you’ve got a clear strategy in place. OK. You’re running Facebook add to whatever the offer is whether it’s a download or you know a webinar a discount whatever it is that you want to accomplish there and then what does that journey look like from AD.

[00:06:16] So you’re having ecommerce that you’re starting a conversation with somebody who is in your target audience but they don’t know who you are necessarily and what does it look like to take them through that journey from not really knowing who you are building that relationship with that person so that they know like and trust you and are finding a lot of value from you and then making it all the way through to the sale. So really having a clear strategy starting with that Facebook ad okay. The second lesson is and again these are all things that we’ve really talked about a lot throughout the show here in 2017. The next lesson is you really need to be abiding by Facebook’s ad policies. If you want to be succeeding with your marketing on Facebook and this really goes without saying we went through periods of 2017 where you know Facebook really crack down on ad policy it was they were a little bit later into in early 2017. They were really heavy with it in 2016. From what I saw they really lightened up with it in cracking down on policy an early part of 2017 and then really sort of started to drop the hammer in late 2017 and really started to crack down on ensuring that advertisers were abiding by Facebook’s policies. And you know there’s many different reasons for this but essentially what we’ve what we’ve been talking about here is on the show is this whole idea of sort of critical mass if you will where the number of ads is that reach that critical mass to that to the number of users on Facebook and that’s why Facebook is integrating new placements and so forth. And with 6 million advertisers on the platform it has become very very competitive. And so because of that Facebook can be more choosy about the types of advertisers that they are allowing to have you know allowing to advertise on the platform.

[00:08:12] So that is why one of the easiest things for them to do a search to weed out if you will you know advertisers who are not providing a good user experience and adding value to Facebook’s users is Who are those advertisers who are not abiding by its policies. So if you’re not you know checking out Facebook’s policies on a regular basis Facebook dot com forward slash policies forward slash ads. That is the link for its Facebook dot com forward slash policies forward slash ad. So if you are not reviewing the ad policies once every hour. I mean heck I’d be doing it once every few weeks. You know once every six months is not enough because they are constantly changing and update those policies. And as an advertiser it is on you to make sure that you’re up on those policies. OK so you’ve got to be abiding by their policies if you want to be succeeding with marketing your business on on Facebook and when you understand those policies that will help shape how you you know from an ad copy perspective and how you are communicating your offers. We have to be we have to be putting the emphasis on what is the positive outcome that your target audience is going to have by experiencing whatever it is your service or product or content. Okay so that is the second lesson number one having a clear strategy. Number two got to be abiding by and really knowing Facebook’s ad policy that you want to be successful. The third lesson is the importance of the relevance score and watching your positive and negative feedback has really never been more important than it is right now on Facebook.

[00:09:58] You know relevance score has been obviously these these stats in metrics if you will have been around for a while but in my view they’ve never been more important to the advertising experience on Facebook because if you have too much negative feedback and it builds up over time in your account then that is a big reason why accounts get shut down or they get flagged by Facebook and if similarly with relevant score because it cause negative feedback is so closely tied into the relevant score. If you have consistent low relevance scores over a time you know your account is going to get dings and that’s another reason why accounts get shut down and get flagged by Facebook. So you’ve got to be keeping those high relevant scores looking for those higher relevance scores. You know this is all about whether it’s relevant score positive or negative feedback. It’s all about ensuring that you’re adding value with good content to your target audience you know because the relevant score is you know how relevant mean in simplified terms how relevant is the ad that you were showing to the target audience that you are targeting in that ad you know the ad that you’re showing we’re talking about what does the offer that you’re making. What is the messaging that you’re using that sort of thing. And then how relevant is that to the target audience. And so we want to make sure that we’re always trying to be adding value with good content to your targeted audience. So this is I don’t this is something that I don’t see changing at all in 2018. I think it’s actually going to become more important even than it has been.

[00:11:37] So really keeping an eye on those relevance scores you know again that’s relevant scores that scale of 1 to 10 10 being the highest that you can get. And the cool thing is is that the higher the relevance score the lower your costs are going to be. So really being on the lookout for those and watching those relevant scores trying to get those as high as you can and then keeping an eye on that positive and negative feedback when it comes to your ads. By the way a lot of people ask me like Well where do you see the relevance score. You actually see it at the ad level so when you’re looking at the reporting and ads manager you see it at the ad level and you’ll have to go into customized columns in the ads manager when you are you know setting up your reporting. You can choose to see the relevant score in your stats. The next big lesson in 2017 is that video continues to dominate. Right. We’ve been talking about video for a long time now and 2000s throughout the last year in 2017. Video continued to be a major focus for Facebook. And when you’re thinking about video if you’re not doing video and by the way you’ve got to be thinking about how can you be how can you be communicating your brand and marketing her message in video. And more specifically thinking about mobile first. So if you think if you’re going to be doing videos definitely be thinking mobile first when creating those videos that likely means shorter video we’re talking like less than 30 seconds when it comes to mobile. But but there’s always that but as far as testing goes don’t be afraid to be testing longer longer videos. OK.

[00:13:15] And speaking of longer videos you know Facebook rolled out its watch platform in August of 2017 as really a destination for video shows and original content. This is what they’re getting into the sort of longer form content play and Facebook is putting a big focus on its watch platform which means a big opportunity for advertisers who are doing video on on Facebook. So we really want to be thinking about how do we. And we’re going to talk about this as you know sort of what to be looking ahead to in 2017 is how are we using video to tell the story of our brand in our business and to help move people further through our customer journey. OK so really be thinking about video and again like I just picked up my iPhone here. You do not need to be hiring this big production crew to record these videos we have to think about when you’re scrolling through the news feed anyway what types of videos do we normally see. These are you know these are the types of videos that people are sharing with their friends and family. These are not necessarily you know high production quality videos you can grab your smartphone and start recording the media. The video cameras on the phones these days are awesome. So just start recording get in front of that camera. And along those lines when you’re doing video by the way you really want to be thinking about integrating your brand within the first three seconds and when I say integrating your brand it’s communicating who you are or who you’re working with an advertiser who the advertiser is within those first three seconds.

[00:14:49] But doing it in a way without annoying your target audience. Okay so remember that as people are scrolling through you got to catch their attention so you want to make sure that you’re integrating your brand or your business within those first three seconds in a very native way into the into the video. And you know as I mentioned as far as not eating a big production value that leads me to Facebook Live doing Facebook live videos is still very very important and really doing it on a consistent basis to add value to your target audience. You know Nolland does this build goodwill and build trust and relationship with your target audience but also more people are going to are going to be seeing those Facebook live videos because they get higher weight. They’re in the in the Newsbeat and the algorithm. Ok then as opposed to regular type of content. So you know you can do you do Facebook lives on a consistent basis. You can then spend a little money to amplify that video so that more people can see it when when. Generally when you do Facebook lives also you’re getting a lot of engagement on it. So you know likes comments and shares and so forth. And then when you turn that video into an ad Facebook sees the engagement on that on the video as something of good value that its users want to see. And so again the video is going to start off with a higher relevance score because it has that engagement already with the with the video.

[00:16:18] So it’s a really good one two punch if you will doing Facebook lives on your page on a consistent basis to give your page more juice also and really adding value to your target audience. Then you can build engagement audiences of people watching your Facebook Live and also your and any of your other videos. So you’ve got a lot of opportunities there too that you can accomplish with video providing great content. Right. It’s a different way to get to connect with your target audience and the target audience get to connect with you on a different level as opposed to just you know just seeing an image right. So a lot of a lot of good stuff coming out of video and it’s going to continue to be a focus for for Facebook in 2017. Okay. What are the other lessons and other lesson here so let’s just kind of recap real quick. So the first lesson we’ve talked about is having a very clear strategy going into your Facebook ad campaign with a clear strategy. The second lesson. Making sure that you’re up on Facebook’s ad policies and abiding by those policies and how you leverage those policies to create ads that going to work well on Facebook that is going to be a big key. And has been a big key to successful advertising on on Facebook and how your messaging your business and our messaging within the ads and so forth. The next lesson we talked about was the importance of the relevance score and really watching your positive and negative feedback.

[00:17:43] It’s really been never never been more important than it has become in 2017. It has to be just finished talking about video and it really continues to dominate on Facebook. Another big lesson that came out sort of in the second half of 2017 is Instagram story ads. And so these 15 second videos on you know on insta story really really good stuff. Not a lot of people are doing it. So it’s a great opportunity too to be testing it out. We tested it in late 2017 for one of the launches that we did and had really good success with it. It’s really easy to do.

[00:18:26] I mean when you’re doing and it’s a story and just be thinking about the types of videos that you see on Instagram stories and the type of video that is native to Instagram stories that is what your ad should reflect. OK. So generally it’s light it’s fun but you can’t and you’ve only got 15 seconds right. So you want to get that message across quickly without like speeding through it. Right. So Instagram story ads if you’re not already testing those out. Highly recommend that you do that. It’s a great new replacement that Facebook has added into Instagram. And I think that a lot more people are going because they’re starting to get talked about more going to be doing it in 2018 as well. So that’s been a big lesson in 2017 Instagram story adds. Now the next lesson Facebook Messenger. This is one of the you know the shiny objects the big sexy object that everybody loves talking about in 2017. And you know I’m going to kind of talk about Facebook Messenger from a few different angles right now. First of all you know this is the this is an awesome way to have a more personalized conversation with your target audience and customers. OK so just as the basis of Facebook messenger of course you can message your friends and stuff like that. But you can now leverage Facebook messenger or Shinsei now. But it’s a great way I should say to have that more personalized conversation with your target audience and customers. That’s going to be something we’re talking about here on in.

[00:20:07] Coming up and as far as what to expect in 2018. So with Facebook Messenger ads I mean you can create ads at a liar audience to click on the ad and start a conversation with you right there. And it’s really that personalization that’s a big shift that’s gone. I mean I shouldn’t say it’s I mean I’m going to go I’m going to get on my soapbox here in a couple of minutes but I’ll save it for that. It’s not really a shift because it’s been happening for a long time. But I would say that personalization of your marketing especially on Facebook is no different. Personalization has never been more important. So Facebook Messenger allows you to do that. So again you can create an ad that when your target audience clicks on the ad they can start a conversation with you right there within within the messenger box that pops up. OK. And then of course the technology around bots has become extremely popular. And you know there are lots of different ways that you can be you can be using bots. We use many chat in our businesses lots of different opportunities out there though. But this is a way as an example that you can I mean you can give you opportunity you can give your audience opportunity to download opt in register purchase whatever all in an automated way right from within a messenger box you can be running a Facebook ad. Now let’s just say you’re doing a webinar for example and you want people to register for it.

[00:21:31] Well they can register now right from within the messenger box and many chat for example will connect with your different different tools and CRM and so forth. So it’s all becoming very automated while keeping it in a personalized fashion. OK we’re going to talk more about that here coming up. You know so or you can also have messages that allow you to have segmented conversations so that you’re offering people on your messenger list the right type of content and value specifically for them. So you can ask specific questions using messenger and then based on their answers you can send them to specific content based on what how they’ve answered those questions. So you know this is a big opportunity for us. I see this being and I’m going to talk about it again coming up here in a couple of minutes. I see this being also kind of abuse where people are not using messenger the right way which is a concern of mine.

[00:22:30] But if you’re doing it the right way and and doing it with integrity and using it in such a way that you are having a more personalized conversation with your target audience and customers. There’s a lot of opportunity there with with messenger and that is only going to get more important in 2018. Right. And lastly on messenger I mean you can also now use messenger as a plug in on your Web site or on landing pages to chat with visitors and customers coming to your Web site or your landing page. So again this is more about about how can you leverage the messenger technology to have a more personalized conversation with your target audience. And the final lesson I want to talk about for 2017 is look Facebook is iterating and it is iterating fast. I talked to a lot of people there like well I’ve been I’ve been away from Facebook ads for a while and then I come back and it’s completely different. It’s completely changing. Well the reason for it is Facebook is continuously trying to improve the ad platform to make it easier and more effective for us advertisers to successfully market our business on on Facebook. So and they’re doing it very quickly. They’re looking to move really really quickly. And so because of that they’re iterating very fast and I don’t see I definitely don’t see this changing anytime soon as we get into 2018 here. That is not going to change. They’re going to continue to try and update and improve the advertising platform.

[00:24:08] So it’s an easier and a better user experience and more effective for advertisers to be reaching their target audience in a really cost effective and efficient way. So Delfi don’t see that changing anytime soon. So those are the big lessons from 2017. Let me recap for you real quick. We talked about having a clear strategy. We talking about abiding by Facebook’s ad policies if you want to succeed with marketing on Facebook we talked about the importance of relevance score and watching your positive and negative feedback never being more important than it is and has become on Facebook in 2017. Video continues to dominate thinking mobile first when we are talking about our videos we talked about doing Facebook lies we talk about Facebook watch and the opportunity there for advertisers from a video perspective. We talked about Instagram story ads we talked about Facebook Messenger and bot’s also when the opportunity for personalized conversation. And then finally we talked about Facebook is iterating really fast. So you really want to be able to keep up with the changes that are happening on Facebook so those are the big lessons in 2017. My friends a lot went on in the world of Facebook ads but these are the big ones for me that really that really stuck out and that I wanted to share with you on this episode here today.

[00:25:34] Now what can you expect in 2018 on Facebook and really in online marketing in general. And the first thing I want to talk to you about I kind of touched on it earlier is having a clear understanding of what your customer journey looks like and once you have that understanding of what does it look like to take somebody who doesn’t necessarily know who your business is who your products are sir or what your product or service is and taking them through to becoming a paying customer. And what does that look like. Make sure you have a clear understanding of that and then once you do using more personalized messaging in your ads and you’re content to speak to your target audience where they are in their journey. Okay now what are we talking about here. First of all look this is nothing groundbreaking. I mean this is the basis of good advertising right the whole thing about you know having the right message to the right person at the right place at the right time. I mean that’s what advertising has been about forever. And you know this whole personalized messaging people are talking about as like this new thing and stuff like that. I mean heck when I was in the corporate world we’re doing this. I mean thinking back eight years ago at one of the companies I was at I was at a contextual advertising platform. And this is exactly what we’re talking about back then having a more personalized conversation.

[00:26:57] And now it’s sort of start at home I guess full circle here where everybody’s talking about it now and the importance of segmentation and having that personalized conversation with people as much as you can. But really the technology’s obviously changed a lot because things like video and you know personalize bots like Facebook Messenger and many chat make this a lot easier to have these more personalized conversations along the journey. OK so really be thinking about your customer journey from a holistic level meaning people are not on we’re not on just one platform anymore. So you know we’re accessing Facebook for example from our smartphone or for on our desktop or on our tablet. And there you know we’re on Instagram and we’re reading articles and so forth. So thinking about that customer journey from a holistic level and creating ads and creating marketing around that holistic journey that people are doing throughout your customer journey. So how can we create ads that reflect that. So if there’s one takeaway or two. Two different takeaways here is number one how can you be really clear on what your customer journey looks like. And again I like to teach start from the end goal and work backwards so from the sale and work backwards and what are all the different things that you can do to build the rapport with your target audience to get to build that know like and trust factor build that relationship with them and give value add content to them so that it will take them through to becoming a paying customer and then using the technology like bots and bots Hindes that have sort of a negative connotation. Yes it does.

[00:28:42] But there are so many cool things you can doing with it from a having that personalized conversation and using that automation to your advantage in a good way as long as you’re doing it with integrity and using it as a permission based channel not pushing things out on a you know just pushing things out on messenger or with a with a bot. You’ve got to be doing it from a permission based standpoint. Okay. And so that’s going to highlight how the more personalized conversation with your target audience. Okay so that’s the first big thing to really be thinking about here for 2018. Having a clear understanding of what your customer journey looks like remembering that it’s looking at it holistically that they’re not just on your target audiences not just on one platform or one device anymore. Be Thinking mobile first again we talked about that earlier with video and then how can we leverage the technology to have a more personalized conversation with our target audience. Okay. All right. The next thing to expect in 2018 is you know there’s this whole conversation around data and big data. So my comment on that. I love it when people are talking about it and like oh this is a new big thing. Again this goes. I mean I was doing. I was we were talking about this eight years ago when I was in the corporate space and talking about the importance of leveraging data to improve advertising improve marketing improve the personalization of of the advertising and marketing. And again it’s sort of come full circle. But I mean the data has been collecting on these platforms over a number of years.

[00:30:31] But again the technology is so much better now that we can now leverage the data to have that more personalized conversation with like the artificial intelligence and the bots and so forth. So that is becoming more important but I want to kind of approach it as far as the data goes as far as the importance of knowing your numbers. And so this is another thing that’s not groundbreaking and you know not necessarily something that is certainly brand new for 2018 but I do want you to as we go into 2018 is to understand that it’s never been more important to know your numbers in your business. Things like what does it cost to get a lead. What does it cost to get a customer. What’s your lifetime customer value what’s the conversion rate within your sales funnel et cetera. Because if you don’t know these numbers you’re going blindly through marketing your business you’ve got to know these numbers and I have talked about this so many times with with students in my in my courses students at my accelerated group coaching program. You know this is about knowing your numbers Insitu you can have a clear understanding of what’s going on in your business. And another reason why this has become so important. If you’ve been doing Facebook ads for the past six months or so in the latter part of 2000 17 you know that you may have realized there’s been a shift towards Facebook giving us more control to set things like bid caps and target costs when we are setting up our Facebook at Sillett when you go into the pricing optimization section at the asset level you see that they rolled out something called lowest cost meaning getting them Purt getting the most purchases for your budget this was the automated bidding.

[00:32:17] The same thing but now you can set a big cap if you want at the lowest cost option. So if you know your numbers. And again this is more sort of for advanced people and people who really really know those numbers you can set a bed cap. Also they have something called a target cost where in the pricing optimization section now where they say that we’ll try to maintain a stable well meaning Facebook will try to maintain a stable average cost per purchase. As you raise your budget and scale in your campaign say you can set a target cost if you don’t know what your numbers are really really clearly then you can’t be leveraging those these new these new features. But you see sort of a shift here in Facebook giving us more control over like midcaps and target cost and so forth. Now of course we don’t have to set these numbers we don’t have to set midcaps entire cost if we don’t we don’t want to we can certainly let Facebook’s algorithm optimize for us to get the best results which we do most of the time in our business. And you know the majority of my students do the same thing. But you know I really do want to mention this as far as for those of you who really know your numbers and you have this part of your business dialed in this is an opportunity to try to test out and take advantage of these new functionalities that Facebook has rolled out in the latter part of 2017.

[00:33:43] So really knowing your numbers really focusing on knowing all the numbers in your business everything from getting know what does it cost to get a lead. What does it cost to get a customer what’s your lifetime customer value conversion rate etc. knowing your numbers so that you can leverage that data to make better decisions in your in your business. Okay.

[00:34:10] Another big thing to be looking at and again we’re kind of shifting away a little bit from Facebook right now and thinking about more sort of online marketing in general is a voice you know and this is another big trend that’s come onto the scene quickly there’s a lot of people talking about voice right now so we’re not going to get into it a whole lot right now. And this particular episode will do another episode later in 2018 but well when I say voice we’re talking about like Alexa skills and like Google home Omai Lexus just lit Lit up over there. So Alexis skill is and Google home. You know so many people are starting to use voice activation and smart technology. There’s a Lexa right there if you hurt. But so just know that this is a big opportunity that is really gaining traction very quickly as we get into 2018. Now if you’re just starting out I certainly would not start here. You know getting into the whole to the to the voice and let you know a podcast is different you know I’m talking more like Alexa and Google home. So if you’re just starting out I certainly would not start there. But if you’re more advanced and you’re established in your business this is a space I’d definitely be looking into in 2018 whether it’s how you can incorporate your brand into these types of platforms with voice by creating content or altering your ASIOs strategy to include how many people you know people are now searching with voice and the search requests tend to be longer.

[00:35:41] So you might want to be including these types of longer searches in your strategy and if you’re going the SEO Search route so be thinking about those types of things. If you’re more advanced in your business is more establishes a space identity be looking into in 2018 and getting into it you know at the very least from a content perspective. Okay. And again if you’re just starting out I certainly wouldn’t start here with with voice but be keeping an eye on it it’s only going to get more important I think in 2018.

[00:36:17] The next thing to be really looking at is for especially in 2017 Google and Facebook have ruled the online advertising world. And I don’t see that changing a whole lot in 2018 but I do see platforms like LinkedIn and Amazon starting to make more headway this year. You know look linked in from an advertising perspective used to be what’s the word I should use on this one. It was not great. We’ll just keep it like that. It was not great but the cool thing is they’ve made a number of improvements to their ad platform in 2017 you know including the number a number of enhancements to make advertising more effective on LinkedIn. And I’m hearing some really good things about it. If that platform makes sense for your business.

[00:37:07] Okay so I’m really going to be keeping an eye on this closely in 2018 starting to experiment more with it. But I do see LinkedIn. It’s certainly not going to overtake Google or Facebook. I’m not saying that I’m just saying that Google and Facebook have been ruling the online advertising world. I don’t see that changing but I do see LinkedIn Amazon starting to make some headway in 2018. You know Amazon has so much data about consumer behavior that if you’re a product based business there’s a big opportunity there to be testing advertising on on Amazon. And they’re really also building out their ad platform as well. You know they’ve had abre ad they’ve had advertising on there but they’ve really made some enhancements to the to the ad side platform over there on Amazon and with so much data. This is an opportunity if you’re a product based business to be testing out over there on Amazon. So I do think linked in and Amazon are two platforms to watch. I certainly don’t see them you know they’re just making headway so that Google and Facebook are not just the big two who are ruling online advertising. You know bottom line though is Facebook is still by far the most cost effective and efficient platform to be advertising your business on online today. You know what the user base continuing to grow. Your customers are on Facebook and with their continued advancements in Iterations like you’ve been talking about today they’re making it much easier and more effective for us advertisers to reach them.

[00:38:43] So as I say here on the show all the time always be testing you know don’t get caught up in just doing one thing and trying to bang your head against the wall to make it work. You just got to be testing different things different iterations different formats and channels and placements and so forth to find the right combination for you. So those are the big things that I wanted to focus on for what you can expect and what you should be looking out for here in 2018. Again I just want to recap these number one really having a clear understanding of what your customer journey looks like and using that more personalized messaging opportunity in your ads as we talked about here Facebook Messenger along with the bot technology like I mentioned I use many chat. I like it a lot in my business so that sort of that artificial intelligence and and this all the data these platforms are have been garnering and learning more about its user bases and so forth. The bot technology and the artificial intelligence is leveraging that data to give us the opportunity to have these more personalized conversations with our marketing. So you know this is really you know this is the quicker that you get. And we talked about this in early 2017 that it was going to be a big focus in throughout the last year as far as how can you as quickly as possible have a personalized conversation with your target audience. Meaning how can you segment people. So you’re not having one conversation too many that you’re having a segmented conversation two people say within your target audience are on your e-mail list.

[00:40:25] How can you segment people as quickly as you can that you are giving them the content that is relevant to them not producing one piece of content or having one conversation with many different types of people who may not care about that. So be thinking about how can you have a more personalized segmented conversation with people as quickly as possible. And again that’s that’s an everything that you’re doing in your business not just Facebook advertising. You know this is when people come to your your Web site and join your e-mail list. Again how could you segment them as quickly as possible or and from your advertising how can you have a more personalized conversation with them as quickly as possible. So really understanding what that customer journey looks like from a holistic level have that personalized conversation with them. And again the technology that available to us from you know everything from video to to AI and bots and many chat messenger and so forth has made it a lot easier to be able to do that. The second thing we talked about as far as what to expect and to be ready for and be focusing on and 2018 is the whole data part of our business. We talk a little bit about big data. I’m not really focusing on that. Yes it’s a huge focus in 2018 and really has been for a number of years but it’s what the big data that’s being collected across these platforms is giving us the opportunity to do I think is the most important right. But I’m talking about in this case here really knowing your numbers.

[00:41:55] It’s never been more important to know your numbers in your business cost per lead cost to get a customer lifetime customer value etc. and a 1 1 reason for that is if you’ve been doing Facebook as over the last six months or so you’ve seen a shift in new functionalities that Facebook is ruled out and giving us as advertisers more control in setting bid caps and target costs and so forth and you can’t do that if you don’t know your numbers. I still for most people out there unless you’re again very advanced and you really have your numbers dialed and you can let Facebook’s algorithm optimized for you to get the best results. That’s really what we do in our business as well. We talked about voice and the opportunity there not starting out there but keeping an eye on it. But if you’re more advanced and established this is a space you want to be looking at into 2018 here whether it’s how you can incorporate your brand into these platforms by creating content or looking at it from altering your SEO strategy and your search strategy because the type of searching that people are doing from a voice perspective the search requests tend to be a little bit longer. So be thinking about those things. And then also I do see linked in an Amazon starting to make more headway in 2018 as opportunities for advertisers if their audience and that platform those platforms make sense for you. I do see linked in an Amazon becoming you know again bigger players from an advertising perspective because of all the enhancements that they’ve made and made it more effective to advertise on those placements. So there you have it my friends.

[00:43:37] Those are the lessons that I want to talk about from 2017 and also what to expect here in 2018 what to be you know possibly focusing on and keeping an eye on here in 2000. 18 Apperley done. Now granted these types of episodes that you do know at the end of the year or at the beginning of the year but I kind of I think there is an opportunity to do more of these types of episodes throughout the year so I really enjoyed putting this episode together for you and so I’m gonna be looking to do more of that these types of things here. In 2000 18 also before we wrap up. Don’t forget if you’re interested in my one day Facebook ads workshop in London on January 26 2018 deafly over to Rick Mulready dot com Ford slash London. I’m only taking ten people and it’s first come first serve. Really hope to see you there. I’m really excited about doing that. One day Facebook ads in business building workshop in London. So thank you so much everybody for listening to the show today and give me your attention. I do not take that lately. It is very much appreciated. Coming up in the next episode going to be talking with Jim Forten about how to ethically use subconscious selling to improve your ads and get more sales go deep in that one.

[00:44:54] That’s a lot of fun. In my conversation with Jim so that is coming up in the next episode too until then my friends as always keep testing your pay traffic to find out what works for you and your business. And then do more of what’s working. And I’ll see you in the next episode.